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Sawasdee people,Sorry we have not updated in a while, what can I say we have just been having to much fun!I won't bore you with every little detail of goings on I'll just re-cap on the last week which will take a while anyway:0) so make sure your sitting comfortably and have a brew with you.Last week was our final week in Chaing Mai (Yes I know we have finally left) so it was farewells all around, our friend Ryan was leaving for the states as well so Rick, Ryan, Paul and myself all got dressed up and had a night out at the local discotec "Bossy". It's a local haunt and we were the only 4 farang's (foreigners) in the place, but that didn't seem to be a problem. There was entertainment on all night, it was like Thai Idol, lots of young Thai singers singing Thai pop songs along with some great classics we knew, so we drank and danced most of the night, I even strutted my stuff with the local lady boys! So after more dancing and more drinking it was time to leave, my exact words were "we need to leave now otherwise I might fall over" So we piled in to the back of a tuk tuk and headed home, once home the alcohol hit me and headed straight for the bathroom and spent most of the next day praying to the porcelain god! It's been a while since I thought I was going to die and I hope it will a long tie before I feel that rough again, in the end it took me a whole week to fully recover much to Ricks amusement. (Like he's never done it). Once I'd recovered enough later on the in the week we decided to finally get out bums in to gear and do our trek, but because we had left it so late we could only manage a one day trek. So we started off at the Elephant camp were we fed the elephants breakfast, then watched them put on a show. I know what some people are thinking are these animals being treated badly etc etc, I had my reservations about going, but once we had a look around it looked like the elephants were being well looked after, and I decided not to judge these people by our western standards as elephants are like cattle to people of the jungle and since new technologies have replaced there function of carrying logs etc they are being hunted and killed for their ivory. so I guess in some ways they are better off here. Any way guilt trip over we jump aboard the elephant and head of in to the jungle were we zig zagged the river, went up hill and down dale. All this movement was too much for Rick and he became travel sick! Yes I know have ever heard such a thing, travel sick on an elephant, only Rick:0) Much to Ricks relief the elephant ride finally came to an end, and up next was Ox cart riding, which I was not to impressed with it was bumpy and I was hanging on for dear life as I'm sure I would have ended up on the floor, Rick seemed to turn back to a shade of pink just in time for a Thai buffet lunch. Yum Yum. Next up was the river bamboo raft which compared to the one we did in the Amazon jungle was lot calm and it even had little wooden seats. I mean we didn't even get wet, now where is the fun in that! Although it was the same river that the elephants had pooed in so probably for the best.After disembarking the raft we headed up to long neck tribe village. Ok ready for a little history lesson. This tribe fled Burma during the conflict as they were being massacred in large numbers; they now live in small communities of about 25 or so in the hills of northern Thailand. However they are not recognized as citizens in Thailand so don't have any rights at all. The government, army and police allow them to stay, but for a fee! Which they earn through tourism or the men of the village going to the cities to do construction work, which they get paid about 120 baht a day which is about 2 pound to you and me. The women stay and make silks and look after the children. But to be honest with those rings round their neck they would find it hard to walk any where. The rings signify beauty and the more rings you have the more beautiful your seen to be. They are made these days from brass and are also seen as protection against tigers. Ok brief history lesson over! Seeing this tribe was amazing and it's unbelievable that these women manage to carry out every day chores with about 20kg around their neck. They also live in abject poverty but were still happy always smiling and laughing with each other.So with the trek over we headed back to the Green Tulip for a surprise farewell meal that Stella had cooked us, which was great we had beef noodle soup and Chaing Mai pork with sticky rice mmmmm.The following day was the day we left CM and everyone at the Green Tulip, let me tell you there wasn't a dry eye in the house, it was so sad to say good bye to the people who had welcomed us in to be part of their family for 6 weeks. Our time at the GT was fantastic and we couldn't have asked for a better place to stay, and any fellow traveler going to CM needs to look up the GT and experience the hospitality given by these people I promise you will have a great time. So we headed to bus station for a 12 hour journey to the Pattaya on the South coast to meet up with our Friends Rachel and Simon.To be continued??.Kim & Rick
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